Kite season set for big year with three new destinations joining old favourites over 11 events on four continents
The GKA season is set to swing into an action-packed 2026 with three fresh destinations around the world joining the roster that includes many old favourites that have become part of the fabric of the kiteboarding calendar.
Freestyle will enjoy renewed emphasis with three solid events set to decide the World Championship titles. The opener will be in the in the new location of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in late May, before moving to another “first”, at Borkum, Germany, a few days later.
The Freestyle crowns, won by Brazil’s Bruna Kajiya and Germany’s Finn Flügel, will again be decided in the iconic spot of Brazil’s Taíba Lagoon in late October.
The Kite-Surf discipline will open and close the GKA year, taking in a total of five events. The legendary break of Ponta Preta on Cape Verde’s Sal Island will again see the first shots fired in February in the 2026 title race.
After a break of almost six months, the second stop is set to come in late August in the established spot of Sylt, Germany, where it will likely feature the only strapless freestyle or mixed format stop of the year.
The long right-hander of Dakhla, Morocco, is the tour’s third call in early October. Two Brazil stops in November will close out the Kite-Surf year, with local Pedro Matos and France’s Capucine Delannoy hoping to retain their titles.
The dramatic spot of Ibiraquera, which sits in a national park, is up first in early November. Taíba will again have the honour of closing the season and crowning the 2026 Kite-Surf World Champions.
The Big Air year will open again where it closed last season, at the Lords of Tram event in Barcarès, France, whose lagoon is bathed by the usually nuking Tramontana winds. The event will have a month-long holding period for most of April to afford the best conditions.
The Big Air world titles, held by Spain’s Lorenzo Casati and Brazil’s Mikaili Sol, will be decided in another new location, Mykonos, Greece, in mid-June, when the thermal winds are invariably huge.
Hydrofoil Big Air will get two stops. The first is in April in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which debuted on the tour last year, followed again by Sylt, Germany, in August. New Zealand’s Hugo Wigglesworth and Switzerland’s Andrea Zust will be hoping they can repeat their title winning ways.
It is bound to be another epic year full of drama. Join us here for all the action.
words: Ian MacKinnon
images: Lukas K Stiller / Svetlana Romantsova / Andy Troy